Improvements to Passive Acoustic Tracking Methods for Marine Mammal Monitoring

• Main Author: Nosal, Eva-Marie
• Other Authors: HAWAII UNIV HONOLULU DEPT OF OCEAN AND RESOURCES ENGINEERING
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Biology; Acoustic Detection and Detectors; *ACOUSTIC TRACKING; *AQUATIC ANIMALS; *MAMMALS; HYDROPHONES; PASSIVE SYSTEMS; POSITION(LOCATION); TEST AND EVALUATION; Marine Mammal Monitoring
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA598093; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA598093

The long-term goal of this project is to improve model-based passive acoustic methods for tracking marine mammals. When possible, tracking results are used to study marine mammal behavior and bioacoustics. The first three objectives of this project are to investigate and implement several specific ideas that have the potential to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and applicability of model-based passive acoustic tracking methods for marine mammals: 1) Invert for sound speed profiles, hydrophone position and hydrophone timing offset in addition to animal position. 2) Improve maximization schemes used in model-based tracking. 3) Use information in addition to arrival times for tracking. The final objective of this project is to: 4) Improve and test approaches to simultaneously track multiple animals simultaneously in cases where it is difficult/impossible to separate and associate calls from individual animals. APPROACH